I have been called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Brazil Vitória Mission from October 2014 - April 2016.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Minha gente!! Como vai?

Sorry I forgot to send out my address last week! Here it is:

Sister Alia Yun Earls231 Oak View DrDouble Oak, Texas 75077

You might not even need it though because we're moving into an apartment sometime this week since the Leonard's (the members we're living with) are tired of having missionaries live with them and their daughter is getting home from her mission soon (super cool - she's been serving in Natal, Brazil). Anyways, I'll send out the new one as soon as I can :) Except you probably won't even need that one either since I'm only gonna be living there for a couple of weeks because guess what?!?!? I GOT MY VISA. This sister is going to Brazil!! President Ames called a few days ago to confirm that I officially received it. I was freaking out haha like tears were shed. So much excitement! So I don't have many details yet, but I know for sure that my flight is on the15th of December:) Best Christmas present ever!

So this week has been awesome! Like wayyyy better than the first week. I hope I didn't sound too negative in my last email...I was just a little overwhelmed. But, I'm definitely getting the hang of things now. I love my companions so much. They've been so darn helpful and patient. Sister Burraston is awesome and she is making me a better person for sure haha I call her Mama Burraston Bear in my head. I don't know if I know her well enough yet to actually call her that haha But we'll get there! And Sister Meiners just reminds me of that stick bug from A Bug's Life and I love her so much haha She's so timid, but she gives some powerful lessons :) Love them so darn much!

Okay so this week. Maybe I'll just try to lay out the week again and say some things that I liked from each day. Emailing is kinda overwhelming because I have no idea what y'all wanna hear and there are too many things that happen. Anyways, here we go...

Tuesday - I had my first companion exchange! I was paired with Sister Nelson (one of the Sister Training Leaders). She is living with members, the Peltor's. They had such a nice room! It was awesome haha We were in the Keller Ward area which is in South Lake. Haha oh and when we were driving to the Peltor's, Sis Nelson got lost and we drove all the way to the airport hahaha it was hilarious. She was like "No! We're not supposed to be here yet!" because this is her last transfer and she kept saying to me "I'm so sorry! You just got here and I'm trying to ship you off already!" Haha good stuff. We had one appointment with a member and then we went tracting for a bit. Everything else besides dinner kinda fell through but it was all good. Oh we had dinner with the Meek's and they told us that their son and daughter-in-law are part of Studio C which was cool and they showed us pictures of them. Oh and we got Sonic when I got back with Sis M and Sis B so obviously it was a good day.

Wednesday - Uhh can't really remember much but we got a new investigator this day! We met Devan in Bartonville while tracting on this road where we were trying to visit a less active. The girl we were trying to find wasn't home, so we drove farther down the road and knocked on a few doors and found Devan. We asked him about how religion has influenced his life and he told us that he had never really believed in God and that he had never really been religious, but he was open to anything. We were able to set up a return appointment with him for this week and we're planning on bringing a member who is around his age with us. I'm definitely excited for that.

Thursday - We had weekly planning so not much happened...We had dinner with the Brown's which was delicious! They feed us so well here! We shared the God's Greatest Creation Mormon Message with them and they asked us so many questions about our investigators. They really love missionary work! We also met with a recent convert, Magda. She is awesome. She is so strong. Her next step is working on Family History so we talked to her about that. She was talking about Thanksgiving stuff and she said she was going to a party and all of a sudden she said "And of course I'm going to party...with the Lord." Haha it was so funny because she's Mexican and her accent made it sound like it could have been a Nacho Libre quote and I was trying so hard not to laugh haha So Sis M and Sis B and I always say that now. Oh and this was the night I got the call about my visa so definitely a good day!

Friday - We met with Debbie again and taught more about the Plan of Salvation. She seemed much happier during that visit which was great. Oh and I got to meet another progressing investigator! Sister Meiners met Tammy a while ago and Sister Burraston and I were able to meet her this day. She is a wonderful lady who attends a nondenominational Christian church (I think that's how she described it). She was so kind and so open to learning about the Church. She said that if the Spirit told her that her church was wrong and that ours was right, she would switch right away. I was amazed at how ready she was to hear about the gospel! Oh this was the day that all of our appointments went wayyy over time so we ended up getting dinner on our way home at McDonald's and we ate soooo much haha

Saturday - Oh we met with an eternally progressing investigator named Maddison haha She's 16 and she goes to Liberty Christian High School (it's like super against Mormons). She like approached the missionaries because she wanted to talk to them for a school project, but then she ended up meeting with them every week. So Sis Meiners has met with her a bunch. It kinda sucks because it always kinda turns into Bible bashing and I always feel like we're just arguing with her so the Spirit isn't always there :( But this lesson was a bit better than usual. We might have to drop her though if she doesn't actually start progressing with us :((((

Sunday- Sis Burraston gave a short talk on gratitude in Sacrament meeting. All of the talks were awesome during that meeting. Seriously, I love the Lantana ward! We did family history stuff during second hour to help Magda out. Oh we had like the best dinner ever at the Fredrickson's! Sis Fredrickson is the best cook ever (besides Mom of course). She made homemade lasagna and apple pie and ice cream. I ate sooooo much haha I have no idea how I haven't gained weight here yet.

Sorry I send such long emails. It's just because I love you all and I wish you could be experiencing all of this with me!!

Eu amo vocês!

Com amor,

Sister Alia Yun Earls

Alma 34:38 Be thankful!!!

Sonic after my first exchange! Pineapple milkshakes are the best :)

Casually squatting by the Starnes' mailbox

There was a crazy rain storm and we found this little guy outside a member's home :)